The Nevada Sagebrush

History ties two assistants to the Carter Era

By: Juan López

Monday, November 16, 2009 - 10:33 PM

“Coach (David) Carter and I actually grew up together … I watched him play in high school and when I got into coaching, he was sort of a mentor to me.” — first-year Wolf Pack assistant coach Keith Brown

Click to enlarge. Photo by Brian Bolton / Nevada Sagebrush.

When Nevada’s first-year head coach David Carter was working his way up through the ranks, he would take note of the work that other assistant coaches put in.
Carter, who worked as an assistant from 1999-2004, knew the thankless jobs assistants did from firsthand experience.

“When you’re on the road as assistant coaches, you see other guys working hard and you say, ‘You know what, he’s doing a good job and if I get a job, I’d like to have him on my staff,’” he said.

So as soon as he was named the leader of the Wolf Pack, Carter brought along two coaches whom he knew from his past: Dennis Gates and Keith Brown.

Brown, who started as an assistant coach in 1998, has known Carter since they were teenagers.

“Coach Carter and I actually grew up together,” Brown said. “We’re from Los Angeles. He’s a little bit older than me and he went to school with a lot of my cousins. I watched him play in high school and when I got into coaching, he was sort of a mentor to me.”

Carter added that he gave his long-time friend tips on how to excel in the business.

“When he was trying to get into the coaching business, I helped him learn what some of the steps were to get into Division I,” he said. “So I just kind of gave him some advice and watched his career. When he finally got the opportunity to get his first Division I job, I gave him a recommendation and he got the job.”

Brown’s first Division I gig came in 2002 at the University of Portland. That year, Gates was an assistant at the University of California, Berkeley and helped lead the team to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

After an illustrious playing career with the Bears in which he was a three-year team captain and earned the Pac-10 Medal of Honor (the highest honor a Pac-10 athlete can earn) as a senior, Gates became an intern assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers.

He then spent two years as an assistant with the Bears before becoming the associate head coach at Northern Illinois University, before Carter scooped him up. The connection between the two also started a long time ago.

“When I was a player and Coach (Carter) was (head) coach at St. Mary’s, he recruited a guy by the name of Dorian Williams, who was on my AAU team and ended up playing at St. Mary’s,” Gates said. “I got to know him some then … and then when I was at Cal and he was here, we recruited against each other for the same players. We bonded in that aspect and always talked.”

Gates, who said his coaching style mirrors his playing style, which is “very, very intense,” said Carter always kept in touch with him, even when they were at different schools.

But despite the long history between the three, Carter held that, in the end, it came down to whether or not they could perform to his standards.

“They work very hard,” he said proudly. “They know players. Both of them are from two different regions. Coach Brown is from Los Angeles and Gates is from Chicago: two highly-populated areas for basketball. They know what they’re doing.”

A Prior History

➤ Before coming to the Wolf Pack, Keith Brown knew David Carter as a childhood friend. The two grew up in the same area and Carter mentored Brown throughout his coaching career.
➤ Dennis Gates is now an assistant on the Nevada coaching staff. Before coming to Nevada, he knew Carter from his high school years and time coaching in college.

Juan López can be reached at jlopez@nevadasagebrush.com.